History of the Embassy

The Embassy of Ireland is located in a historic building overlooking Vilnius’ Cathedral Square.

In 1880 the Burhardt family became the owners of the site on which the building that houses the Embassy is located. In 1883 the present 3-floor building was finished.

In 1901 there was a fashion shop, a chemist’s shop, and R. Vojevodski’s alehouse, much liked by the bohemian elite of the town: writers, artists, and actors. In 1921 the hostelry was called “Palais de Danse” (“Palace of Dance”). For a while it was a Lithuanian cuisine restaurant, and it remained so during the Soviet period.

“Literatu Svetaine” restaurant, as the original alehouse ultimately came to be known, got the reputation for being a shelter for free thinkers among the artistic community.

But the most famous connection of all is that with the Sajudis independence movement which rose in the 1980’s, under the leadership of Vytautas Landsbergis, ultimately Lithuania’s first President, whose office is still preserved on the third floor.

It is also the first building over which the flag of modern, re-independent Lithuania flew in 1989. The notice board is preserved as it was during the heyday of the Sajudis movement when it was used to convey secret messages (in Lithuanian) to Sajudis movement members. The second floor, now the premises of the Embassy of Ireland to Lithuania, belonged at that time to the Theatre Union and was used by it and the Sajudis movement to stage pro-independence plays, using puppets.

The Embassy opened on these premises in 2006.

Previous Ambassadors:

HE Donal Denham 2005 – 2010

HE Philomena Murnaghan 2010 – 2014

HE David Noonan 2014 - 2019

HE Peter McIvor 2019 - Present